Helmsley Trial Lawyers Aren't There to Entertain

By WILLIAM GLABERSON

Published: August 13, 1989

One day last week, James R. DeVita was at it again. In the fifth week of Leona M. Helmsley's trial, the chief prosecutor was arguing a legal point with his usual stubbornness. He seemed immune to broad hints that Judge John M. Walker Jr. was growing short on patience.

''What is going on?'' Judge Walker said with frustration after he had told Mr. DeVita several times that he was likely to rule against him on the point.

Mr. DeVita plowed on. Finally, after 20 minutes, Judge Walker put an end to the discussion. ''You will sit down,'' he told the prosecutor curtly. ''We'll proceed.'' Mr. DeVita followed instructions. But not for long. Soon afterward he was back on his feet at the tax-fraud and extortion trial, employing a style that is long on relentlessness and short on theatrics. A Bulldog Approach

Mrs. Helmsley's trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan has had its dramatic moments. But few of them have been supplied by Mr. DeVita or his main opponent, the chief defense lawyer, Gerald A. Feffer. Neither has shown much interest in showmanship.

Mr. Feffer has matched Mr. DeVita's bulldog approach with a fervently methodical style of his own. An old friend and former law partner, John J. Tigue, described Mr. Feffer as a meticulous advocate who ''brings trial preparation to a neurotic level.''

In his opening statement to the jury on July 5, Mr. Feffer predicted that his client's trial would be a ''true summer extravaganza.'' He might have subtitled it ''the clash of the indefatigable prosecutor and the intense defense lawyer.''

Lawyers who have tried cases against Mr. DeVita and Mr. Feffer described both men's strategies in past cases as virtual blueprints of the way they have played their roles in the Helmsley trial, the most publicized case either has handled. 'Tenacity' Comes to Mind

Mr. DeVita, a stocky, athletic man who turns 40 years old tomorrow, is a quick study who sets a course and refuses to be diverted, said Barry I. Slotnick, a defense lawyer who defeated the prosecutor in a narcotics trial several years ago.

''When you say to me 'DeVita,' '' Mr. Slotnick said, ''there's one thing that I think, and that's tenacity. When he sees himself losing a point, even if the judge rules against him, he keeps going after that point.''

In an interview the week before Mrs. Helmsley's trial began, Mr. DeVita agreed that his style before juries has few entertaining embellishments. ''I tend to be fairly direct and sometimes blunt about what I'm thinking and feeling,'' he said.

Courtroom entertainment is also not the forte of the 47-year-old Mr. Feffer. ''Gerry is not a flamboyant lawyer,'' said Lawrence S. Feld, a former partner of Mr. Feffer's at the firm of Kostelanetz & Ritholz in New York, where Mr. Feffer was a partner from 1976 to 1979. 'Cool, Calm and Efficient'

Mr. Feld said Mr. Feffer's style ''is to build a defense,'' using strategic maneuvering and a low-key approach to win over jurors. In the Helmsley case, Mr. DeVita has repeatedly complained that he is at a disadvantage because, he said, Mr. Feffer intentionally ''flip-flops'' his positions.

The defense lawyer has a ''cool, calm and efficient'' exterior, said Cecilia L. Gardner, a former Federal prosecutor in Brooklyn who lost a financial-fraud trial to Mr. Feffer.

But beneath that exterior, Ms. Gardner said, ''there's this undercurrent of intensity.'' Mr. Feffer appears at ease in the courtroom. But his fingers often tremble slightly as he questions witnesses at Mrs. Helmsley's trial, especially when he concentrates on trying to undo the damage of the many witnesses who have testified against his client.

Mr. Feffer is a partner at the Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly, known as one of the foremost white-collar defense firms in the country. After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1967 and spending four years as an associate at the blue-chip New York law firm of Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander, he spent five years in the 1970's as a prosecutor in the United States Attorney's office in Manhattan, which is now prosecuting his wealthy client. Worked With the Judge

One of Mr. Feffer's good friends when he was a prosecutor, people who worked in the office at the time said, was another assistant United States attorney, John M. Walker Jr. Now the judge in the Helmsley case, Judge Walker is generally credited with presiding evenhandedly and with good humor over the trial, which is expected to go to the jury by Labor Day.

Mr. Feffer, whose gray-white hair and prominent features give him a strong resemblance to the comedian Steve Martin, moved to Washington in 1979 to take the post of deputy assistant attorney general in the Tax Division of the Justice Department. He remained in the post for two years and stayed in Washington after he left the Government. He lives there with his second wife. Mr. Feffer has a 24-year-old son from a previous marriage.

Before he became a prosecutor, Mr. DeVita worked in private practice as an associate at the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell after he graduated from Fordham Law School. He joined the United States Attorney's office eight years ago.

In his time as a prosecutor, Mr. DeVita assisted in the successful tax prosecution of Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, and prosecuted the former New York University professor John Buettner-Janusch, who mailed poisoned candy to the wife of Federal Judge Charles L. Brieant. Signs of Exhaustion

Mr. DeVita lives in Hastings-on-Hudson with his wife and five daughters, the youngest of whom was born the weekend before Mrs. Helmsley's trial began.

Both chief lawyers, as well as their teams of associates and Judge Walker, have shown signs of exhaustion as the trial has drawn on. During one particularly ponderous bit of cross-examination by a defense lawyer, Judge Walker interrupted. ''Please,'' he said, ''we've got to get through this.''

Last week, Mr. Feffer was suffering from a virus that added to what have been great pressures of managing the defense in a case that has included testimony by 40 prosecution witnesses so far and more than 10,000 pages of documents. At one point, Judge Walker asked how the chief defense lawyer was feeling.

Mr. Feffer's answer seemed to sum up the mood of many of those who have spent their summer on the Helmsley case. ''I will be a lot better when we're out of here,'' he said.

Photos of Leona M. Helmsley with Gerald A. Feffer, her chief defense lawyer, entering the United States Court House at Foley Square (NYT/Chester Higgins Jr.); James R. DeVita, the chief prosecutor in the tax-fraud and extortion trial of Leona M. Helmsley. (NYT/William E. Sauro)